Microsoft, after teaming up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), last week unveiled a new chip that could fast-track the development of quantum computers and bring them into wider use within years instead of decades.

Microsoft has developed Majorana 1 – a breakthrough material known as a topoconductor – putting the tech giant on track to build the world’s first fault-tolerant prototype (FTP) of a scalable quantum computer within years – rather than decades.

That breakthrough came as part of the final phase of DARPA’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program.